Sunday, January 24, 2016

This past week has been a void in time. Snow came earlier than was predicted and we had not done storm prep. Randy was in Knoxville on Tuesday, coming home on Wednesday but snowstorm on Wednesday kept him in Knoxville until Thursday. Still couldn't reach our house. Car stuck in a ditch and someone gave him a ride in on an ATV. And we have been snowed in ever since. Intermittent power. Feeding the woodstove to stay warm. Conserving cell phone batteries by not spending time chatting on them or on the internet. Here we are on Sunday morning and it is beautiful outside. So much bright sunshine, and blue blue skies, and lots of snow. We are beginning to feel a bit of cabin fever but remind ourselves of our good fortune to be in a place of warm shelter and food when so many others are stranded in cars, on highways, flooding in other places, and many more inches of snow than ours for others.

When the power is on I'm in a rush to get soup made, and a pot of chili, things that are easier to heat up on the woodstove. Wash dishes, make sure there's coffee in the thermos. Water bowls full for pups. Heaving huge sighs of relief that the tubs are filled so we can flush commodes. Shovel spots for pups to do their business outside (that they sometimes use and sometimes deem it necessary to go out into the deep snow to try to find their scent. I'm worn out just from going from window to window, chair to chair to stove to chair to other chair, outside for wood, back to the chair, or the other chair, feed the birds and commiserate with them on how cold it is for them and how hard for them to find food in snow...and so the path of this past week has gone...hard to know with certainty what day it is. Interesting how at the beginning it always feels cozy and snug and time for reading and reflecting and going at a much more quiet and gentler pace...then the inner restlessness starts to build and the urgent need for fresh air on your skin. Too restless to settle into hand sewing or quilting.